Baby Be Mine: New York City (Love in the City Book 3) Read online

  BABY, BE MINE: Love in the City # 3

  By Victoria H. Smith

  BABY, BE MINE: Love in the City # 3

  Copyright © 2019 by Victoria H. Smith

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, including electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to any person, living or dead, any place, events or occurrences, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Cover Art by Najla Qamber Designs

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Epilogue

  Prologue

  Asa

  Time passed in instances, seconds between falling snowflakes. I stood there in the flurry of soft chunks and melting ice, unable to look away.

  Why couldn’t I look away?

  Frozen, I gazed on, the lump in my throat easily the equivalent of a small country.

  “Noni…”

  She couldn’t hear me, no one could out here in the snow. She heard someone else, had someone else, and he had his fill of her through the house window I stared into.

  He had his hands where mine used to be.

  His fingers smoothed through the thick tendrils of Noni’s hair and down honey-brown cheeks charged with heat. They were the flushed tones of emotion. He had her emotional, his fingers on her skin and his lips on her mouth.

  That mouth had been mine…

  But it wasn’t anymore, and now, I knew it never had been. I knew the day I took it what the end result would be. She never was supposed to be mine.

  I looked up, as I’d gazed away, refocusing between snowflakes. The snow started not long after I had gotten here, the distance from the airport to Brooklyn not a terribly long one. Between the snowfall and the ice crusting on Noni’s house window, my sight fought for her image. I made myself fight for her memory.

  Mostly because I had no idea if I’d ever see her again.

  The guy she made out with parted his lips against hers and Noni’s eyes closed, her body falling into his. The subtle way she responded to his advances almost told of an intimate history. There was a history. This man had kissed her before, touched her before and maybe even in this very house. They had something, something bigger than me and outside of my control. I had control once. I had her once if only for a moment, a few hours in a snow-covered cabin.

  But you let that go.

  I had the minute I let old demons come to pass. I did this to myself. I had let her and any prospect of a future with her go. I waited weeks before I made it here today. I let time go, however foolish.

  “This isn’t over… It’s only starting. We’re only starting.”

  I said that to her once. I lied to her, and I guess now never again. In that cabin with her, I allowed myself to believe I could have something innocent, something I believed during that time had been a single word… perfect.

  But why would perfect settle for chaos—i.e., me. It wouldn’t be able to breathe. It’d never be right together.

  The roses hit my hip when my arm dropped to my side. I’d brought them for her, for a moment that wasn’t this.

  The image of Noni cut off when I shut my eyelids, and the man kissing her on her couch I hoped to soon be a distant memory. That wasn’t the last memory I wanted to have of her.

  I naively expected something different.

  A Few Years Later…

  Chapter One

  Noni

  Willa-Jean Murphy’s ears practically steamed; my friend of many years really quite scary when she was on the cusp of bitch-slapping someone.

  She leaned forward, her ample bosom sliding across the bank teller’s counter. Willa gave the woman a scowl that cut so sharply I questioned if it could be seen clear across the bank’s lobby.

  She pushed the filled-out document across the counter. “Just take the payment, lady. We’ve been waiting in line forever. It won’t hurt you to take one more customer.”

  This persistence and it wasn’t even Willa’s loan payment that was due. It was mine. In fact, the last one.

  The most important one.

  A swell of pride pulsed through my chest the moment I woke up and took in air this morning. I’d done it. I paid off my business loan, but the importance of that feat wasn’t just that I paid it, but how quickly I’d been able to do it.

  Honey Child’s cutesy branding of a honeybee and honeypot was plastered on Willa’s chest, as well as my own more modest one. I wasn’t as full-figured as my friend, but I made our work shirts shine, our outfits a staple of pride. It was evidence of a thriving business.

  One I’d paid off in only a few years since the start of its creation.

  That’s if this lady would let me pay already.

  Because she wasn’t. In fact, she started cashing out her drawer right as Willa and I had made it into the bank. We literally came in only five minutes after six, the bank’s closing time.

  I opened my mouth for my own battle with the teller, but a tug to my leg made me stop.

  A little boy stood at my mid-hip, getting so big. He had the biggest brown eyes one could ever see, as well as the wildest curly brown locks. They actually sat in a halo over his head they were so frizzy, the weather in Manhattan humid today.

  Jalen lifted his hands to me, and I shook my head, bending down to pick him up. He really was getting too big for this. I mean, he even just started school. I couldn’t help giving in when he flashed those little dimples, though. They pierced deep in his toasted-brown cheeks, and I smiled at him, nudging his nose before placing him on my hip.

  I turned after that, my game face back on. The woman literally kept cashing out her drawer, not answering my friend. And let’s just say my friend noticed. I put my hand on Willa’s shoulder before she could do something. I mean, we were in a bank.

  Lifting her hands, Willa threw a few choice words under her breath anyway and even more when she turned and noticed her other side empty. It seemed her preteen had wandered off. Keenan was twelve now, and my did he act like it. His video game in hand, he stood nearly across the lobby, and I wasn’t surprised. That thing was like an extra appendage on him and distracted him constantly.

  Willa snapped her fingers. “Get back over here now!”

  He groaned, returning to her side begrudgingly, and I took advantage of the distraction to work on the teller a bit more.

  I put on my best smile. “Ma’am, if you could just take—”

  “We closed now nearly fifteen minutes ago,” she said, sighing before facing me. “Now, I’m going to have to ask you to come back tomorrow.”

  Willa whipped around. “Lady, you really don’t want us to come back tomorrow. Belie
ve that, so just take the damn—”

  My hand tightened on Willa’s shoulder. She took a breath, collecting herself, and I shifted Jalen so I could put my hand on the counter.

  “Well, is there anyone else we can talk to about this then?” I asked her. “Someone higher up?”

  I wanted to complain, but I wouldn’t go there in front of this woman. She had bosses, so I just needed to explain to them my trouble. No use wasting any more time.

  The woman nearly laughed at what I said, only looking up from her drawer so she could tip her chin. She did so toward the direction of the bank’s far wall, the bank’s branding there in gold lettering.

  Ricci Financial NYC.

  The teller tilted her head at me. “Top floor, miss, and good luck to you. My bosses don’t even pay attention to me.”

  She ignored me after that, Willa and me both, and I only thought four words, as our party turned to walk away…

  That teller wasn’t me.

  Asa

  She teased me—for months. Skirt short and pussy wet, my newest secretary had the endgame all mapped out. She pranced around this office with the goal of a determined woman swaying those lily-white hips of hers these past few months, and all the while those skirts got shorter. When she started working for me, they bordered on nunnery length, but by the end of her second week, she could give the Dallas cheerleaders a strong tip on how to turn heads.

  Her direct choice of fashion sense was how I knew she dripped for me, was wet for me. Her arousal rang through this office like a cat in heat, and a man could only take so much teasing. Especially a man like me with not much of a handle when it came to things like self-control.

  I could imagine that’s why she wore the skirts.

  She wanted my attention, and well, she got it, her ass on my desk and her mouth begging with need. I eased her legs apart, and that only made her more eager, tugging at my tie and scooting that supple ass only ever so closer. This woman had a great ass, and I let the flesh spill through the spaces of my fingers, my harsh digits leaving a trail against that creamy skin.

  “God, Asa,” she groaned, panting beneath my mouth. I barely touched her, but that didn’t seem to matter.

  Reaching up, she got at my shirt collar, making quick work of my tie, and the backdrop of this scene of ours took my attention. I ideally wondered if I should close the blinds, but being on the top floor of my father’s office building, I figured why bother.

  The sky was beautifully clear up here at Ricci Financial NYC, and I’d made myself home in the building’s grandest office these past few months. Usually, I worked in our Chicago office where my family’s company was dominantly based, but NYC saw me as of late, and that had been a more than welcomed change. The branch needed leadership following the retirement of a few of my late father’s former colleagues, and well, I had something to prove.

  My father hadn’t been around for years now—cancer—and though he wasn’t, the board still had a firm hold of his company despite the existence of living heirs. My brother, Alexander, had been in line for the job, my father prepping him since my brother and I were very young. My fraternal twin had always been the serious one, the golden child if you will, but when he decided to “abdicate the throne” and run Ricci’s tech division several years ago, that left a very vacant seat that needed to be filled. My father’s company needed a CEO, and that naturally meant me.

  Too bad the board didn’t feel the same.

  Ignoring the thoughts of the stubborn fools, I continued on where I was with my secretary. I’d been attempting to impress the board here in NYC for months, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t have a little fun.

  This girl agreed.

  I got firmly between her thighs, kissing and tasting her neck. I gripped that piece of skirt she wore in my hands, forcing it out of my way and above her ass. Like I said, it teased me. This woman herself teased, and she grabbed my head, pushing her fingers through my hair.

  “Asa!” she squeaked, shaking the ceramic mug on my desk. A peer over her shoulder showed me she sent waves through the hot coffee on my desk.

  Smiling, I returned to her, placing a hard kiss on her mouth.

  “You gotta calm down, baby,” I said, tonguing her lips apart. “We don’t want Mildred to know we’re in here doing this.”

  Mildred was my number one administrative assistant, a stout woman who worked for the suits here long before my time. Hell, she may have well before my birth time. She was crotchety. She was old, but she got the job done and that was all that mattered. This girl I was trying to get off here on my desk actually answered to Mildred, getting the woman her coffee.

  I bit that mouth in front of me, drawing the girl’s taste between my teeth, and she giggled.

  “No, we wouldn’t want that,” she said, pushing her arms around my neck. She kissed my collar, and the next thing I knew, her hands were going for my belt.

  I braced her shoulders, moving on to kiss her hair while she opened my pants.

  “Slow down, baby,” I told her, laughing a little. I placed another kiss on her crown. “I wanna do this right.”

  We’d been going at this for so long, playing the office version of footsie with casual glances and then those damn skirts of hers. We had come to the point of tossing away the suggestions and simply going for it, and as much as I wanted my needs met, I got more out of pleasing a woman. I liked the challenge of it, finding that perfect spot and then hitting it just right…

  She wasn’t trying to wait, though. Tugging hard at my belt buckle, she actually made me thrust my hips into her. Smirking, I chose to wait. She clearly had her own pace, and I wasn’t that macho I couldn’t find pleasure in surrender. I kissed her hair again, then stopped when I reached a spot with too much gel. That was one of the not-so-desirable things about these high-strung girls. They had to be perfect, hair always in place, diamond studs in their earlobes, and Manolo Blahniks on their feet. Half the time, I wondered if they could breathe in the tight, black dresses they wore. Good ole Mildred was the only one wearing anything casual around here. That came with the territory of the rich, though, and I drew air through my teeth at the feel of hands on my dick. It seemed Miss Slicked-Back Hair got what she was looking for. She felt me up from inside my boxer briefs.

  Her mouth made a small o. “Oh my God. It’s so big!”

  Hearing these statements weren’t foreign to me, but always flattering nonetheless. I guess that made me a male.

  I bit my lip, then hers. “I’m glad you like it.”

  “I love it,” she gasped, closing her eyes. She squeezed me, making my member jump in her hands.

  “I can’t believe this is happening,” she murmured, taking me out of the kiss a bit.

  Shaking my head, I moved back to kissing her. Like the size comment, I tended to get this a lot too when it came to the women I was with. I guess it kind of came with the uh… unique status of being a late billionaire’s son. I had my father’s money, and these girls tended to hear things about me through the media and friends. They had their own perceptions, and without fail, these things did nothing but annoy me. Yeah, it was nice having money. But I didn’t define myself by it.

  Going to show this woman on my desk that, I got her piece of skirt up the rest of the way. I’d just slid my hand between her thighs when the charged thump! of my office door clearly hitting the doorjamb had both this girl and me freezing where we stood.

  “Mr. Ricci, I told her you were in a meeting.”

  “And I told you this will only take a second—Oh, God!”

  That last voice, I couldn’t place, but the first… well, that was good ole Mildred.

  Easing my hand from between a woman’s thighs, I caught a glimpse of my administrative assistant over my shoulder. The older woman was shocked to hell with a set of file folders placed over her mouth.

  Fuck.

  “Um, Mildred,” I mumbled, clearing my throat before turning back around. I attempted to buckle my pants, but my secretary’s
secretary still had her hand in them.

  Damn it all to hell.

  The girl removed her hand quickly, backing away on my desk enough to get her own self together. She was completely red in the face while she buttoned up her blouse, and I didn’t blame her. This was a rather compromising situation.

  “Mr. Ricci,” came from Mildred behind me, her voice in the high-pitched tones of panic. “I didn’t… I didn’t mean to bother—Debbie, is that you?”

  I gazed up, staring directly at the girl before me. The brunette’s lip pushed into her mouth, chewing on it, and I blinked, shaking my head at her in disbelief. She’d told me her name was Katerina. In fact, I’d been calling her that the entire time I’d been here.

  I suppose the latter sounds more exotic.

  I couldn’t say such an occurrence hadn’t happened to me before, a woman changing her name for me. When it came to my life, I got to discern people’s true colors on the daily, both in business and any other relationships when it came to the people revolving in and out of my life.

  Sighing, I helped “Debbie” off my desk.

  “Mr. Ricci—”

  “What can I do for you, Mildred?” I clipped, not really able to help the bite in my voice. She did come in unexpected no matter how inappropriate the scene she stumbled in on. My hands on this Debbie, I straightened her damned skirt. The poor girl was shell-shocked and couldn’t seem to do it herself. After I got it adjusted, I quickly noticed Mildred didn’t answer my question.

  I whipped around. “Mildred—!”

  “Her, Mr. Ricci!” she stated, gasping. She pointed a finger to the side. “She wants to see you, but I told her that wasn’t possible.”

  I followed the direction of her finger to someone I didn’t see initially. There had been two voices when Mildred came in.

  What the…

  The whole scene, the entire moment, was like staring into a dream. I was outside of myself, my body left behind, as I stared into a memory so far away. She was a memory.